Review: Switch – How to change things when change is hard

In the book Switch – How to change things when change is hard the authors describe a fundamental three-part framework that can guide you in any situation where you need to change behaviour: direct the rider (provide chrystal-clear direction by addressing the rational side), motivate the elephant (engage people’s emotional side), and shape the path (make change more likely).

The book is divided in three parts. In the first part – Direct the rider, the authors describe that you should look for bright spots. Do not obsess about the failures but investigate and clone the successes. Then give the rider a starting point and a destination and give him a destination postcard so that the rider knows where you are going and it gives the elephant an insight why the journey is interesting. And finally you have to script the critical moves to be taken.

In the second part – Motivate the elephant we get many examples of how you can make the elephant believe that he is capable of conquering the change. It’s emotion that motivates the elephant. And emotion comes from feeling. En motivatie komt voort uit gevoel. On the one hand you can shrink the change and on the other you can grow your people grow (or, preferably, both).

In the last part – Shape the path we get to see what it means that, when you tweak the environment the behavior will change too. Simple adjustments can lead to dramatic changes. Look for ways to build habits and finally rally the herd. Behavior is contagious, help it spread.

Conclusion: A must read for the change agent, you get an in depth explanation of the three-part switch framework, and many, many examples. On top of this you get workshops with food for thought on the basis of a situation how the three switch parts should be handled (direct the rider, motivate the elephant and shape the path).